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Runtime Configuration Files
The runtime configuration files store the dependencies of an application (formerly stored in the .deps file). They also include runtime configuration options, such as the Garbage Collector mode. Optionally they can also include data for runtime compilation (compilation settings used to compile the original application, and reference assemblies used by the application).
Note: This document doesn't provide full explanations as to why individual items are needed in this file. That is covered in the corehost spec and via the Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyModel assembly.
What produces the files and where are they?
There are two runtime configuration files for a particular application. Given a project named MyApp, the compilation process produces the following files (on Windows, other platforms are similar):
MyApp.dll- The managed assembly forMyApp, including an ECMA-compliant entry point token.MyApp.exe- A copy of thecorehost.exeexecutable.MyApp.runtimeconfig.json- An optional configuration file containing runtime configuration settings.MyApp.deps.json- A list of dependencies, as well as compilation context data and compilation dependencies. Not technically required, but required to use the servicing or package cache/shared package install features.
The MyApp.runtimeconfig.json is designed to be user-editable (in the case of an app consumer wanting to change various CLR runtime options for an app, much like the MyApp.exe.config XML file works in .NET 4.x today). However, the MyApp.deps.json file is designed to be processed by automated tools and should not be user-edited. Having the files as separate makes this clearer. We could use a different format for the deps file, but if we're already integrating a JSON parser into the host, it seems most appropriate to re-use that here. Also, there are diagnostic benefits to being able to read the .deps.json file in a simple text editor.
IMPORTANT: Portable Applications, i.e. those published without a specific RID, have some adjustments to this spec which is covered at the end.
File format
The files are both JSON files stored in UTF-8 encoding. Below are sample files. Note that not all sections are required and some will be opt-in only (see below for more details). The .runtimeconfig.json file is completely optional, and in the .deps.json file, only the runtimeTarget, targets and libraries sections are required (and within the targets section, only the runtime-specific target is required).
[appname].runtimeconfig.json
{
"runtimeOptions": {
"gcServer": true,
"gcConcurrent": false,
"framework": {
"name": "Microsoft.DotNetCore",
"version": "1.0.1"
}
}
}
[appname].deps.json
{
"runtimeTarget": ".NETStandardApp,Version=v1.5/osx.10.10-x64",
"compilationOptions": {
"defines": [ "DEBUG" ]
},
"targets": {
".NETStandardApp,Version=v1.5": {
"MyApp/1.0": {
"type": "project",
"dependencies": {
"AspNet.Mvc": "1.0.0"
}
},
"System.Foo/1.0.0": {
"type": "package",
},
"System.Banana/1.0.0": {
"type": "package",
"dependencies": {
"System.Foo": "1.0.0"
},
"compile": {
"ref/dotnet5.4/System.Banana.dll": { }
}
}
},
".NETStandardApp,Version=v1.5/osx.10.10-x64": {
"MyApp/1.0": {
"type": "project",
"dependencies": {
"AspNet.Mvc": "1.0.0"
}
},
"System.Foo/1.0.0": {
"type": "package",
"runtime": {
"lib/dnxcore50/System.Foo.dll": { }
}
},
"System.Banana/1.0.0": {
"type": "package",
"dependencies": {
"System.Foo": "1.0.0"
},
"runtime": {
"lib/dnxcore50/System.Banana.dll": { }
},
"resources": {
"lib/dnxcore50/fr-FR/System.Banana.resources.dll": { "locale": "fr-FR" }
},
"native": {
"runtimes/osx.10.10-x64/native/libbananahelper.dylib": { }
}
}
}
},
"libraries": {
"MyApp/1.0": {
"type": "project"
},
"System.Foo/1.0": {
"type": "package",
"serviceable": true,
"sha512": "[base64 string]"
},
"System.Banana/1.0": {
"type": "package",
"sha512": "[base64 string]"
}
}
}
Sections
runtimeOptions Section (.runtimeconfig.json)
This section is copied verbatim from an identical section in the input project.json file (with the exception of the target parameter which is generated by the compilation process). The runtimeConfig section specifies parameters to be provided to the runtime during initialization. Known parameters include:
gcServer- Boolean indicating if the server GC should be used (Default: TBD). Note: This is designed to mirror the existing app.config setting)gcConcurrent- Boolean indicating if background garbage collection should be used (Default: TBD). Note: This is designed to mirror the existing app.config setting).framework- Indicates the name and version of the shared framework to use when activating the application. The presence of this section indicates that the application is a portable app designed to use a shared redistributable framework.- Others TBD
These settings are read by corehost to determine how to initialize the runtime. All versions of corehost must ignore settings in this section that they do not understand (thus allowing new settings to be added in later versions).
compilationOptions Section (.deps.json)
This section is copied by storing the merged compilationOptions from the input project.json. The project.json can define three sets of compilation options: Global, Per-Configuration, and Per-Framework. However, the [appname].runtimeconfig.json is specific to a configuration and framework so there is only one merged section here.
The exact settings found here are specific to the compiler that produced the original application binary. Some example settings include: defines, languageVersion (C#/VB), allowUnsafe (C#), etc.
As an example, here is a possible project.json file:
{
"compilationOptions": {
"allowUnsafe": true
},
"frameworks": {
"net451": {
"compilationOptions": {
"defines": [ "DESKTOP_CLR" ]
}
},
"dnxcore50": {
"compilationOptions": {
"defines": [ "CORE_CLR" ]
}
}
},
"configurations": {
"Debug": {
"compilationOptions": {
"defines": [ "DEBUG_MODE" ]
}
}
}
}
When this project is built for dnxcore50 in the Debug configuration, the outputted MyApp.deps.json file will have the following compilationOptions section:
{
"compilationOptions": {
"allowUnsafe": true,
"defines": [ "CORE_CLR", "DEBUG_MODE" ]
}
}
runtimeTarget Section (.deps.json)
This property contains the name of the target from targets that should be used by the runtime. This is present to simplify corehost so that it does not have to parse or understand target names and the meaning thereof.
targets Section (.deps.json)
This section contains subsetted data from the input project.lock.json.
Each property under targets describes a "target", which is a collection of libraries required by the application when run or compiled in a certain framework and platform context. A target must specify a Framework name, and may specify a Runtime Identifier. Targets without Runtime Identifiers represent the dependencies and assets used for compiling the application for a particular framework. Targets with Runtime Identifiers represent the dependencies and assets used for running the application under a particular framework and on the platform defined by the Runtime Identifier. In the example above, the .NETStandardApp,Version=v1.5 target lists the dependencies and assets used to compile the application for dnxcore50, and the .NETStandardApp,Version=v1.5/osx.10.10-x64 target lists the dependencies and assets used to run the application on dnxcore50 on a 64-bit Mac OS X 10.10 machine.
There will always be two targets in the [appname].runtimeconfig.json file: A compilation target, and a runtime target. The compilation target will be named with the framework name used for the compilation (.NETStandardApp,Version=v1.5 in the example above). The runtime target will be named with the framework name and runtime identifier used to execute the application (.NETStandardApp,Version=v1.5/osx.10.10-x64 in the example above). However, the runtime target will also be identified by name in the runtimeOptions section, so that corehost need not parse and understand target names.
The content of each target property in the JSON is a JSON object. Each property of that JSON object represents a single dependency required by the application when compiled for/run on that target. The name of the property contains the ID and Version of the dependency in the form [Id]/[Version]. The content of the property is another JSON object containing metadata about the dependency.
The type property of a dependency object defines what kind of entity satisfied the dependency. Possible values include project and package (further comments on dependency types below).
Open Question: type is also present in the libraries section. We don't really need it in both. It's in both now because the lock file does that and we want the formats to be similar. Should we remove it?
The dependencies property of a dependency object defines the ID and Version of direct dependencies of this node. It is a JSON object where the property names are the ID of the dependency and the content of each property is the Version of the dependency.
The runtime property of a dependency object lists the relative paths to Managed Assemblies required to be available at runtime in order to satisfy this dependency. The paths are relative to the location of the Dependency (see below for further details on locating a dependency).
The resources property of a dependency object lists the relative paths and locales of Managed Satellite Assemblies which provide resources for other languages. Each item contains a locale property specifying the IETF Language Tag for the satellite assembly (or more specifically, a value usable in the Culture field for a CLR Assembly Name).
The native property of a dependency object lists the relative paths to Native Libraries required to be available at runtime in order to satisfy this dependency. The paths are relative to the location of the Dependency (see below for further details on locating a dependency).
In compilation targets, the runtime, resources and native properties of a dependency are omitted, because they are not relevant to compilation. Similarly, in runtime targets, the compile property is omitted, because it is not relevant to runtime.
Only dependencies with a type value of package should be considered by corehost. There may be other items, used for other purposes (for example, Projects, Reference Assemblies, etc.
libraries Section (.deps.json)
This section contains a union of all the dependencies found in the various targets, and contains common metadata for them. Specifically, it contains the type, as well as a boolean indicating if the library can be serviced (serviceable, only for package-typed libraries) and a SHA-512 hash of the package file (sha512, only for package-typed libraries.
How the file is used
The file is read by two different components:
corehostuses it to determine what to place on the TPA and Native Library Search Path lists, as well as what runtime settings to apply (GC type, etc.). See thecorehostspec.Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyModeluses it to allow a running managed application to query various data about it's dependencies. For example:- To find all dependencies that depend on a particular package (used by ASP.NET MVC and other plugin-based systems to identify assemblies that should be searched for possible plugin implementations)
- To determine the reference assemblies used by the application when it was compiled in order to allow runtime compilation to use the same reference assemblies (used by ASP.NET Razor to compile views)
- To determine the compilation settings used by the application in order to allow runtime compilation to use the same settings (also used by ASP.NET Razor views).
Opt-In Compilation Data
Some of the sections in the .deps.json file contain data used for runtime compilation. This data is not provided in the file by default. Instead, a project.json setting preserveCompilationContext must be set to true in order to ensure this data is added. Without this setting, the compilationOptions will not be present in the file, and the targets section will contain only the runtime target. For example, if the preserveCompilationContext setting was not present in the project.json that generated the above example, the .deps.json file would only contain the following content:
{
"runtimeTarget": {
"name": ".NETStandardApp,Version=v1.5/osx.10.10-x64",
"portable": false
},
"targets": {
".NETStandardApp,Version=v1.5/osx.10.10-x64": {
"MyApp/1.0": {
"dependencies": {
"AspNet.Mvc": "1.0.0"
}
},
"System.Foo/1.0.0": {
"runtime": {
"lib/dnxcore50/System.Foo.dll": { }
}
},
"System.Banana/1.0.0": {
"dependencies": {
"System.Foo": "1.0.0"
},
"runtime": {
"lib/dnxcore50/System.Banana.dll": { }
},
"resources": {
"lib/dnxcore50/fr-FR/System.Banana.resources.dll": { "locale": "fr-FR" }
},
"native": {
"runtimes/osx.10.10-x64/native/libbananahelper.dylib": { }
}
}
}
},
"libraries": {
"MyApp/1.0": {
"type": "project"
},
"System.Foo/1.0": {
"type": "package",
"serviceable": true,
"sha512": "[base64 string]"
},
"System.Banana/1.0": {
"type": "package",
"sha512": "[base64 string]"
}
}
}
Portable Deployment Model
An application can be deployed in a "portable" deployment model. In this case, the RID-specific assets of packages are published within a folder structure that preserves the RID metadata. However, corehost does not use this folder structure, rather it reads data from the .deps.json file. Also, during deployment, the .exe file (corehost renamed) is not deployed.
In the portable deployment model, the *.runtimeConfig.json file will contain the runtimeOptions.framework section:
{
"runtimeOptions": {
"framework": {
"name": "NETCore.App",
"version": "1.0.1"
}
}
}
This data is used to locate the shared framework folder. The exact mechanics of which version are selected are defined elsewhere, but in general, it locates the shared runtime in the shared folder located beside it by using the relative path shared/[runtimeOptions.framework.name]/[runtimeOptions.framework.version]. Once it has applied any version roll-forward logic and come to a final path to the shared framework, it locates the [runtimeOptions.framework.name].deps.json file within that folder and loads it first.
Next, the deps file from the application is loaded and merged into this deps file (this is conceptual, the host implementation doesn't necessary have to directly merge the data ;)). Data from the app-local deps file trumps data from the shared framework.
The shared framework's deps file will also contain a runtimes section defining the fallback logic for all RIDs known to that shared framework. For example, a shared framework deps file installed into a Ubuntu machine may look something like the following:
{
"runtimeTarget": {
"name": ".NETStandardApp,Version=v1.5",
"portable": false
},
"targets": {
".NETStandardApp,Version=v1.5": {
"System.Runtime/4.0.0": {
"runtime": "lib/netstandard1.5/System.Runtime.dll"
},
"... other libraries ...": {}
}
},
"libraries": {
"System.Runtime/4.0.0": {
"type": "package",
"serviceable": true,
"sha512": "[base64 string]"
},
"... other libraries ...": {}
},
"runtimes": {
"ubuntu.15.04-x64": [ "ubuntu.14.10-x64", "ubuntu.14.04-x64", "debian.8-x64", "linux-x64", "linux", "unix", "any", "base" ],
"ubuntu.14.10-x64": [ "ubuntu.14.04-x64", "debian.8-x64", "linux-x64", "linux", "unix", "any", "base" ],
"ubuntu.14.04-x64": [ "debian.8-x64", "linux-x64", "linux", "unix", "any", "base" ]
}
}
The host will have a RID embedded in it during compilation (for example, win10-x64 for Windows 64-bit). It will look up the corresponding entry in the runtimes section to identify what the fallback list is for win10-x64. The fallbacks are identified from most-specific to least-specific. In the case of win10-x64 and the example above, the fallback list is: "win10-x64", "win10", "win81-x64", "win81", "win8-x64", "win8", "win7-x64", "win7", "win-x64", "win", "any", "base" (note that an exact match on the RID itself is the first preference, followed by the first item in the fallback list, then the next item, and so on).
In the app-local deps file for a portable application, the package entries may have an additional runtimeTargets section detailing RID-specific assets. The corehost application should use this data, along with the current RID and the RID fallback data defined in the runtimes section of the shared framework deps file to select one and only one RID value out of each package individually. The most specific RID present within the package should always be selected.
Consider corehost built for ubuntu.14.04-x64 and the following snippet from an app-local deps file (some sections removed for brevity).
{
"targets": {
".NETStandardApp,Version=v1.5": {
"System.Data.SqlClient/4.0.0": {
"compile": {
"ref/netstandard1.5/System.Data.SqlClient.dll": {}
},
"runtimeTargets": {
"runtimes/unix/lib/netstandard1.5/System.Data.SqlClient.dll": {
"assetType": "runtime",
"rid": "unix"
},
"runtimes/win7-x64/lib/netstandard1.5/System.Data.SqlClient.dll": {
"assetType": "runtime",
"rid": "win7-x64"
},
"runtimes/win7-x86/lib/netstandard1.5/System.Data.SqlClient.dll": {
"assetType": "runtime",
"rid": "win7-x86"
},
"runtimes/win7-x64/native/sni.dll": {
"assetType": "native",
"rid": "win7-x64"
},
"runtimes/win7-x86/native/sni.dll": {
"assetType": "native",
"rid": "win7-x86"
}
}
}
}
}
}
When setting up the TPA and native library lists, it will do the following for the System.Data.SqlClient entry in the example above:
- Add all entries from the root
runtimeandnativesections (not present in the example). (Note: This is essentially the current behavior for the existing deps file format) - Add all appropriate entries from the
runtimeTargetssection, based on theridproperty of each item: - Attempt to locate any item for the RID
ubuntu.14.04-x64. If any asset is matched, take only the items matching that RID exactly and add them to the appropriate lists based on theassetTypevalue (runtimefor managed code,nativefor native code) - Reattempt the previous step using the first RID in the list provided by the list in the
runtimes."ubuntu.14.04-x64"section of the shared framework deps file. If any asset is matched, take only the items matching that RID exactly and add them to the appropriate lists - Continue to reattempt the previous search for each RID in the list, from left to right until a match is found or the list is exhausted. Exhausting the list without finding an asset, when a
runtimeTargetssection is present is not an error, it simply indicates that there is no need for a runtime-specific asset for that package.
Note one important aspect about asset resolution: The resolution scope is per-package, not per-application, nor per-asset. For each individual package, the most appropriate RID is selected, and all assets taken from that package must match the selected RID exactly. For example, if a package provides both a linux-x64 and a unix RID (in the ubuntu.14.04-x64 example above), only the linux-x64 asset would be selected for that package. However, if a different package provides only a unix RID, then the asset from the unix RID would be selected.
The path to a runtime-specific asset is resolved in the same way as a normal asset (first check Servicing, then Package Cache, App-Local, Global Packages Location, etc.) with one exception. When searching app-local, rather than just looking for the simple file name in the app-local directory, a runtime-specific asset is expected to be located in a subdirectory matching the relative path information for that asset in the lock file. So the native sni.dll asset for win7-x64 in the System.Data.SqlClient example above would be located at APPROOT/runtimes/win7-x64/native/sni.dll, rather than the normal app-local path of APPROOT/sni.dll.